On Surviving a Lethal Diagnosis and Giving Back

When Steve Buechler, a now-retired professor of sociology at University of Minnesota, started chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) a matter of days after a routine check-up-turned-cancer diagnosis, he thought, "This is not how my story is going to go." After years of chemo and a bone marrow transplant, Buechler was cleared to be in remission by his team of doctors. "There was this oceanic feeling of joy that quietly washed over me," Buechler said. And since that day, he's been seeking ways to share positive stories of experiences in illness to bring connection and joy to other patients like him.